Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...

Moving forward in Zimbabwe
Reducing poverty and promoting growth
of specialisation after the ninth year of schooling through
the introduction of technical/vocational streams within the
secondary education system. 5 It is possible to provide a twoto-three-year
technical/vocational specialisation programme
in selected secondary schools. Students in such streams
would still do some academic subjects, such as languages,
mathematics, natural science and social science, but could
spend three days a week on technical/vocational training.
This would be along the lines followed in Thailand, where
agriculture graduates from such courses are trained to run
a 12-acre farm (about five-and-a-half hectares), establish a
nursery or work in the garden of a large hotel. The high flyers
can proceed to college and university. The same approach
can be used for other practical and technical subjects, such
as woodwork, metalwork, fashion and fabrics, catering, etc. 6
As the introduction of some level of technical/vocational
training is likely to be more expensive than concentration on
classroom and book learning, one out of ten schools could
initially be selected, making a total of about 160 secondary
schools. This could gradually be increased to one out of five
schools.
1.3 Another less expensive but more important strategy in
the short run is providing ‘one skill’ vocational training.
This would provide an important stop-gap solution to the
rampant unemployment of the young, without adding high
costs to the education and training budget.
1.4 The number of training places in agricultural colleges needs
to be drastically increased, because there is an urgent need
for more graduates with these skills. This training should be
linked directly to the Land Resettlement Programme, and
graduates of these training programmes should be given
priority for purchasing farms.
1.5 The number of students at technical colleges needs to be
boosted, as their specialisations are critical for development.
A key aspect of their training should be internship in existing
enterprises. The state should put into place financial and
other packages to persuade industries to take on trainees.
Graduates can work both within Zimbabwe and within the
region.
1.6 The very limited enrolments at vocational training centres
and colleges are a matter for serious concern. This sector
provides technicians who have a more practical orientation
than those provided by the polytechnics and technical
colleges. It therefore serves a very important function for
the 170,000 students who leave school each year with only
some level of primary education. Zimbabwe had extensive
experience in the 1980s of providing technical/vocational
training to war veterans, with the basic requirement of
literacy only in some cases. This was done through the
Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production,
ZIMFEP. This valuable experience should be harnessed,
and this sector strengthened. There are already a number of
underutilised and even vacant training centres which could
be revived to provide this essential type of training. Due
to the high demand for technical/vocational training, such
centres are now demanding a minimum of five ‘O’ levels.
1.7 Tertiary education as a whole needs to increase enrolments
and improve the quality and relevance of the education
provided. In this regard, an increase in the private sector
involvement from the present 8.7 per cent to about 50
per cent of enrolments would be desirable, with equal
inputs from both the state and the private sector, as is
the case in primary, secondary and teacher education. At
present, private universities and technical colleges do not
receive state support. State and private sector partnerships
should be seen as a key strategy for education expansion
and educational relevance, and Zimbabwe already has very
successful experience of such partnerships.
1.8 At tertiary level, the science, technology and engineering
sectors need to be given much greater emphasis than at
present, as these areas are exceptionally important for
Zimbabwe’s present stage of development.
2. Education and training for the region. The brain
drain of doctors, teachers and nurses indicates that these
specialisations should also be boosted within the education
system, as such staff are in high demand in the region. There
is a need for Zimbabwe to recognise that its education and
training facilities should be open to SADC, and that such an
approach would be useful both for Zimbabwe and for the
region. Given that Zimbabwe has demonstrated comparative
advantages in education and training, it is advantageous
to open up its tertiary education and training facilities to
the region, and to increase the education and training
at this level, with a view to contributing well trained and
experienced human resources in specific areas to regional
development. In addition, by opening up training facilities
to the region, Zimbabwe will earn much-needed foreign
exchange to enable these institutions to improve themselves
to internationally recognised standards.
3. Linking education to real life challenges. The education
system does not deal with many real life challenges that
school students will face, both during their school career and
after they leave school. Challenges which face these young
people include the prospect of unemployment; the dangers
of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases;
dealing with the generational divide that has developed as
a result of the educational and economic changes which
have taken place after Independence; and the challenges
of and opportunities for working in Zimbabwe and the
region. The crisis has created new issues that need to receive
attention at school, including dealing with conflict, paranoia,
partisanship, polarisation of political views, torture and
rape; greater understanding of economics, such as the
money supply; the need for political tolerance, to tackle the
high degree of political immaturity that exists at present;
and the need to improve environmental education, given the
environmental devastation that has taken place during the
crisis, due to the exponential growth of illegal mining and
panning.
4. The development of values, principles and moral
education. One of the challenges facing Zimbabwe today
is that of developing personal as well as national values
and principles. To some extent this has been done through
religious education within the family and school situations,
but there is clearly a vacuum in this area, as evidenced by
the departure from the rule of law and the contravention
of basic human rights in the country, including the use
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